Wipro's New Study States that Sponsorship & Business Alignment as Significant Barriers to Digital Transformation

According to a new survey commissioned by Wipro Digital, the enterprises are finding success with digital transformation, but the challenges related to senior leadership and adopting to new ways of working are the major failures in the early stages. The study also shows that digital transformations can seem overwhelming at first with personal issues as the biggest barriers and organizations that manage people’s expectations, keeping senior leaders aligned and ensuring right partners will see success in the long run.

Rajan Kohli, President, Wipro Digital, comments, “These results show that in the past two years, enterprise leaders have ensured that their organizations are capable of delivering ROI on their digital transformation efforts. Leaders must align stakeholders and help their business units adapt to and leverage new technology, methods or processes. They need to hold fast and keep their company Boards and C-suite informed and comfortable with disruption, new ways of working, and reorient their strategy as new insights and patterns are uncovered. This will help senior leadership consistently commit to the necessary sponsorship. The payoff will come. It's not too late to start a digital transformation program, but the window of opportunity is closing”.

The survey was conducted by Coleman Parkes Research and around 1,400 CXOs from the around the world working for companies with more than 5,000 employees and more than $500 million revenue were polled for this. The survey is the continuation of Wipro Digital’s 2017 survey which indicated a leadership crisis in digital transformation.

In 2019, enterprises are improving on digital transformations and 90 percent of executives feel their company is executing successfully in line with their digital transformation strategy. Now, 94 percent feel that companies were aligned on what ‘digital transformation’ compared to 2017 where one in four executives found that lack of understanding about their definition of ‘digital transformation’. The survey also points out that, 59 percent found inconsistent sponsorship from senior leadership as one of their five concerns, 56 percent said, not being able to train their existing teams to change or use new technology, methods or processes, and 54 percent stated, need of better alignment with business stakeholders are also key. Almost 14 percent of executives with journeys less than two years indicate technology as the biggest barrier, compared to 26 percent of executives whose journey lasted more than two years.

The other major findings include, 85 percent of respondents believe that companies started digital transformation journeys later than others still have a chance to catch up their competitors, in terms of ROI, 14 percent saw measurable business results in less than six months, 31 percent saw within six to twelve months and 54 percent saw it in one to three years and only one percent took more than that, most respondents had goals tied to driving growth: accessing new markets, increasing revenue, increasing agility and speed to market as well as cost reduction and nearly three quarters of executives describe their digital transformation journey as moderate and only 20 percent say its new and disruptive in their program.